A Prayer for the City by Buzz Bissinger

A Prayer for the City by Buzz Bissinger is a chronicle of the mayorship of Ed Rendell as mayor of Philadelphia in the 1990s, basically the Clinton years. As mayor he came into a city that was a mess, broke, losing jobs, crime ridden and he was able to turn a lot around, but this is a complicated story that is told in a way that you can take apart the pieces and get it. Also the story of the many people in his administration who did the foot work to make things happen.

In addition to the specifics of what was happening in Philadelphia, there is an analysis of the state of the American city, the flight to the suburbs and all the implications of the loss of manufacturing jobs and how that had vast implications for social conditions and the consequences that were involved. This is woven into the larger picture of the Clinton era and how this affected many people.

This is also told from the perspective of many people, not just the mayor, but average people, some who worked for the city, inner city residents of various socio-economic backgrounds, professions from lawyers to clergy to long shoremen.

The Palace Papers

The Palace Papers, by Tina Brown. As the cover image illustrates, this book is focused on the women of the royal family, but not exclusively. Everyone gets dished about equally. I did learn some new things about some of the royal family, much abour Meghan. But at a certain point I really did not want to spend more time with these people. A lot the writing about Prince Andrew I just skipped over. Ok the guy is an ass, I didn't need to know how his assiness manifests itself.

But Tina Brown is an excellent writer, and I was at times amazed by her vocabulary. This does not happen often with modern writers. In all I was really left with the 'what happens after she is gone', which is a major theme of the book.

In the Hurricane’s Eye

In the Hurricane’s Eye by Nathaniel Philbrick. Mostly about the sea battle commonly called the battle of the Chesapeake. This was pivotal battle leading up to Yorktown. Interesting that it was fought by the British and French navies, at the mouth of the Chesapeake to gain control of the estuary. It was a major revolutionary battle, and no American fought in it. Love getting a new piece of history.

There is a lot in the book about the relationship between the French and Americans. At least according to this author, without the French we never would have won the revolution, but mostly they fought since they were under orders, they really thought us a bunch of backwoods hicks. Which is probably not too far off.

It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic by Jack Lowery

It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic by Jack Lower Interesting history of early ACT UP development in the 1980s and 1990s. Specifically a group of people called Gran Fury who were the graphic designers behind such initiatives as "Silence=Death" and other slogans. I found it an original approach to look at activists group through their design initiatives. Who knew that fonts could be so contentious. The first half of the book illustrates the early years and formative years of the group, which ultimately was not a large group. Mostly this is the story of a group of people and their stories and relationships, and many stories of people dying in the early days of no testing and very little treatment.

The second half bogs down as the story just starts to document who was fighting with whom and who was dating who and the story, as with the people, lose their edge. But all in all an original way to look at activists. There is some information about earlier activists movement like the civil rights movement and Vietnam war protesting, and movements that came later like Occupy Wall Street and Me Too.

Riverman by Ben McGrath

Riverman by Ben McGrath is the story of Dick Conant, an outsider character who disappeared attempting to canoe from Northern NY state to Florida along the east coast. He was an experienced river canoer who had completed several long distance canoe trips, and was very skilled at navigating water ways in the US. While it is an interesting story, the author had met Conant when he stopped by a neighbor’s house living on the Hudson. He apparently was a very sociable and charming man with great stories. When he disappeared, the author began a search for Conant, linking many stories from people he encountered. Unfortunately, the story bogs down in details, parts felt like the author was padding the story to add pages to the book. Another story of an adventurer who succumbed to the elements.

Ways and Means

Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War by Roger Lowenstein Interesting story of the financing of the civil war. Basically Lincoln and his treasury secretary Chase invented the modern US monetary system to finance the war. Before that all banking was decentralized in private banks in the states who issued their own money, they created the national banking system and a national currency.

Not having any knowledge of this subject, I found the first part of the book fascinating as it is described how Chase and Lincoln tried to figure out how to finance the growing civil war. The author does a great job of comparing the financing of the Union, with that of the Confederacy. This goes to the funamental differences of the Union being a centralized government of the states, and the confederacy being a collection of states with a weak central government. According to the author it was really the Civil War that created the country that is now the US, and solidified the national government as an entity that would influence all aspects of life.

One of the many aspects that is described is the liberation of the slaves and what their fate would be. The author anchors all aspects of this book with the impacts of the economics involved.

The book does get bogged down in some of the details of various aspects, as he tracks the entire path of the civil war. Railroads play prominently in this narrative and the expansion of the US. Lincoln's interest in the railroads goes back to his days as a lawyer, and he was instrumental in making sure the Union Pacific railroad was established to make the US a two ocean country. One sad aspect is the idea that Lincoln wanted to move to California after leaving the presidency.

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson chronicles the first year that Winston Churchill was Prime Minister at the beginning of WW2. This was at a time that Hitler had overrun Europe and had turned his sites on defeating Britain in order to create a Nazi Europe. England was standing alone, as the US would not enter the war until the Japanese attached the US in December 1941.

This is a very thoroughly researched volume, the author had access to many diaries of major players on both sides of the conflict, so we recieve a very personal view of many major events of that year. The personal lives of the Churchills is provided in much detail, along wth the details of the Battle Britain and the massive bombing that GB had to endure.